NHLe is extremely deceptive for prospects. It'd be better to look at something similar to what Iain Fyffe writes up in stat-shot. Which is creating a league equivalency value for junior projection and then add an age adjustment. On top of that, it would be even better to also add an era adjustment, although that isn't written up.
Edit: I'll just do a couple prospects quickly. This also factors in WJC, which is a huge boon for Laf, and hurts Byfield, WJC games are weighted at 1.5 pre-age adjustment. OHL is 1.10, WHL is 1.05 and QMJHL is .95. I won't bother giving all the age adjustments by month, but month one (September 16th-October 15th is multiplied by .949, whereas August 16th to September 15th is multiplied by 1, every other month is between those). I personally only trust these numbers for CHL for a variety of reasons, so I'll do a couple of the top CHL kids. I've previously done this for all CHL forwards who were 1st round picks since 2005 for a reference point. I'll post some other examples. The other examples also include playoff and Memorial cup games which are valued higher and get an addition multiplier of 1.2. I'll add, I find this more informative than just looking at basic statlines, but this is just a tool. Not the be all and end-all, I would still take Laf above Rossi for example despite the gap in results, like I would have taken Hischier over Nick Suzuki despite Suzuki having the better-adjusted numbers. I will also say, when compared to the previous seasons numbers, since these are incomplete and the weight of the playoffs is bigger (although its still divided by total games, so regular season is still the most important), in the current state they probably hurt Byfield due to how heavily WJC is valued due to 7 games now making a larger percentage of his point per game, than it likely will when his season is finished unless he faces a major injury. For reference, his adjusted numbers before factoring in WJC is 2.10, which is higher than Laf currently.
Lafreniere: 2.05 (39 games played)
Byfield: 1.77 (40 games played)
Rossi: 2.41 (33 games)
Perfetti: 1.83 (40 games)
Zary: 1.43 (37 games)
For reference, the 3 highest numbers I've ever gotten are McDavid at 2.77, Crosby at 2.58, and Kane at 2.53.
Other notables of elite young players are Marner at 2.24, and Tkachuk at 2.19, but guys there are other guys like MacKinnon who had a good but not elite score 1.79 or Barzal had a score of 1.38.
Now, obviously, there is a long-list of guys with good scores who didn't become much. Sam Gagner (2.23) and Drouin (2.02) are the only guys with scores over 2 in their draft year who didn't become high-end players (The list is Tkachuk, McDavid, Marner, Drouin, Hall, Tavares, Kane, Gagner and Crosby). Both played with 1st overall picks. But obviously guys like Yakupov and such had great scores (especially in Yak's pre-draft year, highest score ever is Tavares 16 year old year of 2.89).
Now, I have no era adjustment, and I personally believe OHL numbers are a bit inflated this year, but obviously, this should make people quite optimistic about Rossi, Lafreniere, Perfetti and Byfield.
